Spring 2012

Some of you have not been to the cafe or bakery for 2012... I thought I would post a few pictures so you can see what we have been up too. The cafe now has more seating! We have increase our seating capacity by 7, 8 at a stretch...

We have also moved all of our take away down to the bakery, we hope that by doing this you will get better take away service...It also allows us to serve the customers who are sitting down for a meal to be served better as well..

Some other things we have been up to is increasing our selection of items in the deli...We now have a small but great selection of Irish, Italian, French and Dutch cheeses... We have decided to have a 'cheese of the week', where you will get a discount on the price but also this will give more focus to cheese's that we feel you should know more about!

The croissants are back! Yes, the hand rolled hand made Diva croissant is back, and it is better than ever...the croissants pop out of the oven at 11 o'clock on the days that the cafe is open.

There is also a few new flavours of bread these days, this week it was a kalamata olive and sea salt, we have also tried a bread enhanced with cornmeal..

There is more that we have planned, so stop by and have a look...take a break and have a fair trade coffee and that buttery flakey croissant, breathe deeply and savour those moments in life when you know that everything will be alright....

A freshly baked basket of bread for the Kinsale market

hand rolled croissants, scones and danishes

The pastry case, moved over from the cafe and repainted...

It's been a long time!! i know...

But now I have had a bit of a break from work and I am ready to get back into the swing of things..

I haven't been too lazy about work though, I have been testing some recipes to see if I will put them on our menu for next year... The first one i tested was a sticky toffee pudding cake..

It was ok..not quite the taste that I was looking for.. and I kinda messed up the toffee sauce..I had to transport the cake and the sauce, so I made the sauce last and put it into a glass jam jar with a lid, and I think that since it was still warm it created condensation and caused the toffee sauce to crystalize.. The sauce that was left in the pot was still ok once it was reheated...anyhow here is the recipe, maybe you can try it and see what you think?

For cake:

1/4c butter at room temp.

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 c chopped pitted dates(about 6oz.)

1 teaspoon bread soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon seasalt

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Sauce:

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup butter

1 tablespoon brandy

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for garnish.

First grease and flour a bundt pan, bring 1 1/2 cups of water and chopped dates to boil in a pan, remove from heat and stir in bread soda, mixture will be foamy. Set aside to cool

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together, mixture will be grainy. Add 1 egg to blend, half of the flour mixture and half of the date mixture. Repeat with remaining egg, flour and date mixture...pour into prepared bundt pan. Bake in a moderate oven for 40-45min. or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack. At this point you can keep the cake wrapped at room temp for 1day..

For the sauce:

Bring sugar, cream and butter to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over a medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 3 min. Remove from heat: stir in brandy and vanilla. Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temp. Reheat gently before using.

dates, stewing...

I used vanilla beans

baked cake

cooking the toffee sauce

a new brownie?

so we just shut the cafe, bakery and deli for the season, but that hasn't meant we've stopped thinking about baking, food or new ideas! in fact i was having a friend come by, to help fit a multi fuel stove in our fireplace, and i looked out at the dreary west cork sky then, decided it was a good day for brownies. i've been eyeing a recipe on David Lebovitz's site for gluten free brownies (our recipe for a gluten free version was good, but had a grainy texture do to the substitution of rice flour), his uses corn flour in place of plain flour.
you can find the recipe here. i didn't have the cocoa powder so i didn't add it, and the results were still really nice, a good crust to gooey-fudgey ratio. (i'd say the added cocoa would really up the chocolate ante.) im still getting to grips with my home oven, so the bottoms were extra carmelized, they have dissappeared none-the-less! it might take a bit of persuading to convince Shannen to change the "house brownie recipe," that we've been using for ten years (the official anniversary is this May!), but i think these are a winner.
taylor

2011 Flashback

it was a pretty good year..........

bring on 2012!

Vintage Tea Party @ Diva!

Poster Art by M@fia Design

we are serving a Christmas afternoon tea on monday the 12th and the 19th of december in the cafe! from 2-5pm, please book ahead, prices are €20 for 1 person and €37 for two people. which includes tea, delicious finger sandwiches, sweet scones with clotted cream and jam, savoury scones with goat's cheese spread, and of course a selection of diva's cakes, tarts and cookies. all served on our very own vintage china! dress to impress (vintage) the best dressed could win their tea for FREE! (men and women) tell your friends, and bring a few!

Quick and easy appetizer..

Last night I organized a 'pot luck' evening for women in business in the area at the cafe....Since I was working all day, I didnt have time to get a dish together(it was busy at the cafe, so no time to whip something up there)...However, I have an ol' reliable up my sleeve! Thanks to my Grandma Gibbons for all of her party tricks, I have kept this one going...Its quick and fast and really tasty...

Here it is....

Take one 8oz block of Philadelphia cream cheese....put on plate

Sprinkle with bay shrimp or prawns...

Cover with sweet chili sauce!! You can garnish with coriander, lime or chopped ginger would be nice..

Serve with crackers....Yes, it is simple...but it tastes great and is kitchy cool!

Why join our CSB Program?

Based on the model of Community
Supported Agriculture (CSA), our Community Supported Bakery (CSB) scheme aims
to create a more direct relationship between our bakers and customers. A
subscription to our CSB scheme provides you with a weekly delivery of breads
and sweets, even deli items!
More reasons why you should sign up:
-It’s easy and affordable, €80 program or €45 program!
-your program is completely flexible
-you don’t have to sign up for a whole year, just 5 weeks at atime
-you’ll always get what you’re looking for, you ordered it!
-it helps our bakers know how much of our small batch breads and cakes to produce
-you don’t even have to drive to Ballinspittle to get our bread and cakes!
We will deliver every Wednesday to the Kinsale farmer’s market!
(For customers in our area, every Thursday in our Ballinspittle bakery)
-joining our CSB is directly investing into the future of your
community, and the livelihood of delicious breads and cakes!

To sign up:
ring the café, email us, or pop into café!
021 477 8465 diva.ballinspittle@gmail.com